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Water Policies and the International Financial Institutions

NEW REPORT: Will the World Bank Back Down? Water Privatization in a Climate of Global Protest  [640 KB]

• Profit Streams: The World Bank and Greedy Global Water Companies  [90 KB]
• Bearing the Burden of IMF and World Bank Policies
• The IMF and World Bank Push Water Privatization on Developing Countries [80 KB]
• The IMF, the World Bank and the Global Water Companies: A Shared Agenda
• World Bank Water Policies Undermine Public Health
• World Bank Seeks Funds from U.S. Congress
• NEW: movies to show in your community
• Mobilization Against the World Bank 2005

Alphabet Soup: Unscrambling the IMF and the World Bank

International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Founded in 1944, the IMF is one of the most powerful actors in the global economy. Governed primarily by the major shareholding countries, the Group of 8 (G-8), the IMF lends billions of dollars to countries that are experiencing extreme economic imbalances. The loans come with ‘conditionalities’ that generally include fiscal austerity, de-regulation, privatization, and trade liberalization.

World Bank
Founded in 1944, the World Bank is made up of four distinct agencies that provide loans to governments and private sector businesses, offer policy advice, and arbitrate investment disputes. Also governed by the major shareholding countries, the World Bank exercises powerful influence over cash-strapped developing country governments that must comply with World Bank conditions in order to access loans and debt relief.

What’s Wrong with the Water Policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund?

The standard policy advice of the IMF and the World Bank is to pay back the debt by cutting the government budget, increasing revenues, and shrinking the public sector through "privatization" – selling public enterprises such as water, electricity and telecommunications to private corporations. The IMF and the World Bank place conditions on their loans requiring goverments to increase consumer prices for water and privatize water utilities. In developing countries, where most of the population makes less than US$2 a day, increased water fees mean that families are forced to make daily trade-offs between safe water, food, clothing, school fees and health care.

What really happens to the World Bank's reports? Click here.

In the news:
July 29: World Bank rebuked over water deal
March 28: From Wolfensohn to Wolfowitz: The Imperial Wolf Shows its Teeth
March 19: The World Bank: a Bigger Problem Than Wolfowitz
March 16: Wolfowitz to World Bank?! – critics amazed
March 14: Staff Accuses World Bank of ”Cooking the Books”

2004
October 31: Crime and reward: Immunity to the World Bank
May 27: South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel calls for IMF attitude reform
January: Water Privatization: The World Bank's Latest Market Fantasy

2003
December 12: World Bank and ADB’s Role in Privatizing Water in Asia
January 7: World Bank, IMF: Privatize Water Utilities 
World Bank pushes private water
Water for profit: how multinationals are taking control of a public resource

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